When The Cloud Hurts...

Cloud Computing seems to be the buzzword for today's techies. If you don't know what cloud computing is, you can read our articles on Cloud Computing #-Link-Snipped-#and #-Link-Snipped-#. Chances are high that you're already using cloud computing without even knowing. If you ever access data that you haven't stored locally, there's a 99.99% chance that you're accessing it over a cloud. For that matter, even CrazyEngineers is in the cloud and many of you didn't know about it. The point is - the world is becoming too dependent on cloud computing and there is a strong reason we should be concerned about it.

Recently, Google had a #-Link-Snipped-# with the cloud that hosts Gmail. Tens of thousands of Gmail accounts were lost, closed, reset and important data was lost. We've also had comments #-Link-Snipped-# which were associated with Android purchases. Google engineers are having a hard time restoring the servers and removing the software bug that caused this big failure in cloud. But what about the end users? A tiny fault in the cloud can cause severe damage to all the user data and there's little the end users can do about it.

Google has restored access to about 1/3rd of the affected users but there's a confirmed data loss. I'm not sure whether Google keeps back up of all the Gmail data, but it's no brainer to guess that it would cost them huge amount of money.

The bottom line is - the best place to keep your important, personal data is not in the cloud but on your own computer and back it up on DVD or Blu-Ray disc. Unless we see new technologies that ensure loss-proof and crash proof servers with strong back-up mechanism, personal data storage devices are the ones we should rely on.